26 Ex-nazis to Face Trial in Germany As Officials of Auschwitz Camp

“The most encompassing Nazi crimes trial in West Germany” will open at the end of 1962 when 26 former SS officials of the Auschwitz murder camp will be tried, Heinz Wolf, Frankfurt State Attorney, announced yesterday.

He said that he expected to complete preliminary legal investigations against the 26 ex-Nazis next March or April. The most prominent of the 26 is former Auschwitz commandant Richard Baer, who was arrested a year ago near Hamburg where he was working as a woodcutter. The others include former camp doctors, dentists, guards and members of the so-called “political section,” of the Gestapo.